Shoplifting plea brings suspended sentence

Shoplifting plea brings suspended sentence

By JULIE E. GREENE / Staff Writer

A Hagerstown woman pleaded guilty to misdemeanor theft Monday in Washington County Circuit Court for stealing two Sony PlayStation games from Ames Department Store.

Jodi Marie Faith, 24, of North Mulberry Street, was given a 30-day suspended sentence in the Washington County Detention Center by Judge John H. McDowell.

McDowell said previous difficulties Faith had with substance abuse and an abusive relationship with the father of two of her children may have contributed to her actions.

He warned Faith that further problems would result in jail time.

McDowell also ordered Faith, to pay $265 in fine and court costs within 60 days and to complete mental health treatment. He gave her one year of unsupervised probation. She was also ordered not to trespass at Ames.

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On Feb. 25 Faith put the two video games in her purse and tried to leave Ames without paying, said Assistant Washington County State's Attorney Arthur Rozes. The games, valued at $39.98, were recovered.

In exchange for her plea, two counts of assault were dismissed, Rozes said.

At the time of the theft Faith was on probation for two counts of failing to send her children to school, according to Rozes and Faith's public defender, Joanie Raymond.

"Today I think she's in a very different place," Raymond told McDowell.

Recovering from alcohol abuse, Faith has been sober more than a year and is in a more supportive environment, Raymond said.

The man with whom she had had an abusive relationship was being held by the Department of Corrections on charges stemming from that abuse, Raymond said.

While not mentioned in court on Monday, Faith had been sentenced to 60 days in jail on Dec. 9, 1998, by Washington County District Court Judge Noel Spence after pleading guilty to four counts of leaving a child unattended. She was given 30-day suspended sentences on the other two counts.

That plea resulted after her four children, at the time ranging in age from 2 to 5, were found living in filth on Oct. 15, 1998, in an apartment infested with fleas and lice.